Natured Inspired

The Impression Obsession Challenge this week is "Nature Inspired". For my entry I have selected  again the Cover a Card  CC031, since this is the most appropriate for the theme. Though this time, I have chosen "natural" colors !

My regular readers will have a sense of déjà vu, as the design is fairly similar to my previous IO challenge entry, but I still could not bring myself to hide the image behind other elements, so I kept those to a minimum: a wooden button and twine, some kraft paper and a sliver of blue card stock.

Initially I was going to use sprays over my stamped image and selected a lightweight watercolor paper able to withstand the moisture. However, after several tries, I wasn't getting the effect I wanted and changed tactic. Using the reverse of the paper (I hate waste), I stamped again using my newest ink, i.e my wettest, Versamagic in Eggplant in order to get the best impression despite the texture of the paper. I then applied distress inks in Tumbled glass, Spun sugar and Forest Moss with Cut N Dry foam. I distressed the edges with scissors and matted on a piece of maroon card stock.

Hope you'll like this card,

Art Journal Challenge

Well... not as such as I don't do journals but similar ! I am taking advantage of the Craft Barn latest challenge to beautify an on going project of mine. I am building up pages for a book to contain all my samples, test pieces etc.. Each page has pocket(s) at the back, leaving me free to decorate the front as I wish, although I am careful not to build thick layers.
There wasn't a master plan here but I intended to use some masks and sprays and selected stamps according to how much use I had from them, i.e cracked open those that hadn't been used for a while !

I have used stamps from Crafty Individuals and Katzelkraft, using my darkest ink (Ranger's Archival) for the main image. The border on the left is texture paste through a DIY stencil.
I thoroughly enjoyed the exercise as it didn't matter if the result was awful, since the book is for only for me.
Thanks for coming by,

Favorite Quote

I am joining the Impression  Obsession's challenge, "Favorite Quote/ Saying". Now, I don't tend to use quotes on my cards, but I thought this one would always allow me to use pink inappropriately

The background stamp is CAC Branches (CC031) and the quote is Rose Colored Glasses (D8256)
I have been playing with dye inks and glossy card with the resist technique, and tried several inks (metallic pigment inks work well as a resist). Here I have used versamark.

I think I overinked the brayer here as the colors are... let's say vivid...   but decided to go with it anyway as I still love the image. I have kept layers to a minimum because I didn't want to hide the Branches image and used a Martha Stewart Corner punch on one side and rounded the corners on the other side of a rectangle piece of white card.
One more thing... the "sun" in the image is actually the flash reflecting from the glossy card, and I thought it looked great... wish I could replicate the effect with inks but...

Thanks for coming by,

Last Days of Summer

I have been meaning to make a cover for my new phone, so when the Crafty Individuals challenge came along, I decided to see if I could fit my project with the theme.
And the stamps I chose tell the story of the last days of holidays for young girls (CI-284) about to return to their school with its ancient door (CI-249) !

I only used scraps to make the cover (my attempt at up-cycling), the material on the outside cover started as white and I used silk paint to color it and craft inks to stamps with (Versacraft), in a bid to make it washable. I then backed the stamped material with a scrap of an old ironing board cover, then machine stitched on the reverse. Not being the best at sewing, the stitching is not entirely straight but the cover offers a snug fit to my phone and does a good enough job of protecting it.

I have refrained from sewing on or attaching anything to the cover because I realised that in my handbag these things would just get snagged !

Not all the inks did well on that surface and overall the impression looks a bit faded (I got the best impressions  with the wetter pads).













All stamps, except for the flourish stamped in pink, are Crafty Individuals.

Thanks for coming by,

Blog Candy at Crafty Individuals

 

Pop along to the Crafty Individuals blog to see their new stamps, masks and must have and feast your eyes on this blog candy:

 

 

Good luck !



Blog Candy at the Craftbarn

The Craftbarn have over 1000 followers and are celebrating with a fantastic blog candy worth £150.

To enter see the details on the Craftbarn blog.

Good luck,

Colouring techniques challenge

The Craft Barn has set us a challenge to use one of the colouring techniques shown by their DT. I plumped for the technique shown by Neil as I had in mind some detailed stamps that could use several colours, which can only be achieved by using markers !
The project below is one page of a book I am creating to organise my bits of stamped, embossed, punched pieces of card etc.. and the reverse has a pocket to insert these samples.

I have kept the design flat as there will be bulk at the back in the pocket, and simple as I have lots more pages to make for the book ! Stamps used are from Crafty Individuals.
Thanks for coming by,

It's A Man's World

So true... Well, very much ahead of time I have made a Father's Day card for the Impression Obession Challenge. I had already used the same stamp for this year and as soon as I finished it I had a better idea and this is it.

The main image is a Gary Roberston's design stamp, Potting Shed ( H1802), which I colored with Pencils. This is such a detailed image that, as I was coloring, I was discovering bits that I hadn't spotted before. The coloring is a a bit too pale but I left it as is, since the idea was to show a "sun bleached" shed. To display this image to its best advantage I then made a stepper card and decorated it with die-cut pieces and small punched butterflies.

Thanks for coming by,

Winter scene, embossing and die-cuts

After a week of mouth watering projects from the design team at the Craft Barn I was chomping at the bit to get embossing.
I didn't use Fran-tage powders as I just couldn't decide which to buy... Aged rose or Shabby pink ? Or Aged aqua for a vert de gris effect ? I am still pondering. Meanwhile I created this Christmas card as one can't start too early on Christmas cards! Plus I just had to use this lovely Gary Robertson stamp...

I applied versamark on the Noel and dipped first in white embossing powder and then clear before melting to produce a snow cap effect.
I colored the Impression Obsession Winter Scene (H1284) with pencils, added some Copic At You Spica clear glitter pen to the snow in places and embossed the whole piece with clear embossing powder.
I die-cut the window with some Spellbinders dies and a corner with a Memory box die.

Warning ! As some of the grains of white embossing fell when I tapped the pieces over my clear embossing container I have managed to contaminate my clear powder. On this occasion it isn't to bad as the main image has a few, unintended but appropriate, snowflakes but this might be a problem for another project.

I am entering this in the Craft Barn Embossing and mica challenge and the Impression Obsession Die challenge

Thanks for coming by,

Red white and blue challenge

This week the Impression Obsession challenge is Red White and Blue, just in time for 4th of July projects. But I am thinking back to winter as I am entering (belatedly because I thought only cards could be entered - Duh!) this scrapbook page inspired by the colors in the photo. I love making my own backgrounds with stamps and masks and the Cover A Card stamps are ideal because of their size.

I used a Flourish mask by Tim Holtz in a 2 step process : first I used the Impression Obsession CAC Newspaper ( CC068) and embossed in clear powder, secondly I applied Distress inks over the embossing and mask.

The blue paper is vellum embossed with a 5x7 Cuttlebug folder, the handmade red paper has been cut with a Spellbinder die. A bit of hand stitching, a tag and a brad to finish a simple layout.

I have been using this stamp quite a lot in my vintage scrapbook layouts but once embossed in white it doesn't say "vintage" anymore and works well here, I think.

Don't hesitate to tell me what you think !



Using masks challenge

Rather than use patterned papers for my scrapbook layouts I like to create my own backgrounds with stamps and masks. So the latest CraftBarn challenge is right up my alley...

I have used a Crafter's Workshop template with a reddish mist, both in positive and negative shapes,  with Distress ink and cut & dry foam, and with versamark and mica powders on top. The stamps are from Katzelkraft and Impression Obsession. I am not concerned about the empty spaces, since if I don't need them, I can always fill them with photos or embellishments when creating the layout.

I might let you see the finished piece in a future post...

By the Sea

Time  for another challenge at Impression Obsession following their latest rubber stamps release with lots of "sea" inspired images from  Gary Robertson (one of my faves!) and first time stamp designer Dina Kowal. Naturally the theme is By the Sea...

I used the Beach Chair (F2337) for the main image and tried something different to my usual techniques for variety !

I have used patterned papers for the chair and towel, and colored pencils to shade. The towel is
mounted with foam tape to give a bit of depth, but that isn't very obvious in the picture.
I colored the rest of the image with markers and used transparent glitter on the sand.  Finally, I used glossy accents to make the glass look like glass (completely invisible on the photo).

Hope you will like it,